The one job sector that's booming

By Neil Patrick

The fastest growing sector isn't tech, it's the black economy...

The other day, I met an old friend I’d not seen for years. Decades in fact.

He’s a talented graphic designer. Naturally we talked about how his career had played out. It turned out that he’d drifted from job to job, but due to health problems had never managed to hold a job down for any great length of time.

To survive he’d taken any casual work he could find. Much of this work was paid for in cash; part of the booming black or ‘underground’ economy.

With so few jobs paying an adequate wage to meet the cost of living, millions of educated and skilled people now exist in an underground economy. In the US alone, this has ballooned to over $2 trillion annually.

Most people struggle to imagine a billion dollars, let alone a trillion. Two trillion dollars is $2,000,000,000,000. To put this in perspective, according to the IMF, the total GDP of the UK is ‘only’ $2.3 trillion…

That's maybe 10 million jobs in the US since the start of the recession

America's underground economy is not new, but since the Great Recession hit, analysts estimate it has more than doubled in size, driven by unemployed or underemployed people desperate to just survive. What other sectors can match that sort of growth?

I estimate this is equivalent to at least 5 million new jobs created in the US since 2008. This is fag packet maths I know, but let's say that of this estimated $1tr growth, each person earned on average $20,000 a year (this is probably much higher than the real figure, so I'm being cautious). That equates to 5 million jobs. If the actual average was $10,000, then we're talking about 10 million jobs...

As a benchmark, one of the fastest growing employment sectors, computer systems design, provides around 1.5m jobs in the US. The BLS forecasts this will be 2.1m  jobs by 2020.

So the underground economy is huge. And it’s not just criminal businesses like drugs, cyber-crime or prostitution. Research shows that a great deal of the black economy exists in completely legal industries such as bars, clubs and restaurants. It’s simply non-criminal work that isn't declared to the government by the employer and/or the employee.

Just as many people have been hard hit by the recession, so too have many businesses. It’s a huge temptation for business owners who in better times would probably run their businesses completely legally. Faced with a stark choice between closing down or slipping into the underground economy, many businesses have chosen the latter. Ironically therefore, whilst a decision to operate in the black economy takes tax out of the treasury, it also saves governments money on welfare payments to people who at least maintain some earned income.

Suddenly, the archetypal figures of the underground economy - the drug dealers and Mafia godfathers, now have a lot more company. Their new 'co-workers' are no longer just other criminals in the conventional sense of the word.

So most of these new participants in the underground economy today are ordinary citizens not evil greedy low-lives. They’re doing anything they can to survive and increasingly, this means taking jobs that pay "under the table" because they simply have no choice.

"It's typical that during recessions people work on the side while collecting unemployment benefits," Bernard Baumohl, chief global economist at the Economic Outlook Group, told The New Yorker.

He went on to say: "...the severity of the recession and the profound weakness of this recovery may mean that a lot more people have entered the underground economy, and have had to stay there longer."

Who works in the underground economy?

Some of the folks who've become trapped in the underground economy have been there for years, such as construction workers, illegal aliens and housekeepers. But it's a mistake to think these are all poorly educated immigrant workers.

The huge job losses caused by the recession have forced more people to switch from well-paid professional jobs to low paid service jobs.

But the biggest contributor to the underground economy in the past few years has been employers increasing their use of freelancers or "independent contractors" - even many who actually work full-time.

The weak U.S. economy has already given businesses plenty of incentives to cut costs by paying workers under the table. But the arrival of Obamacare gave them even more. The rules that demand that employers with 50 or more employees provide health insurance for full-time staff while allowing them to avoid offering plans to part-timers naturally encourages employers to offer more part-time work and less full time work.

"This type of regulation could put more people out of work and into an underground economy," Peter McHenry, an assistant professor of economics, told CNBC.

The underground economy hurts everyone

The rapidly growing amount of unreported wages in the U.S. is costing the nation billions in lost tax revenue. The Internal Revenue Service estimates that the losses from unreported wages have grown from about $385 billion in 2006 to about $500 billion currently.

That means the people who play by the rules are getting a raw deal.

"Those working and not paying the taxes put the burden on those who pay the tax," said David Fiorenza, an economics professor at Villanova University. "Taxes could be lower if the government were able to capture the underground economy instead of raising taxes on those currently paying the various income and payroll taxes."

But even those getting paid under the table don't get an easy ride. They forfeit contributions to Social Security, which will reduce benefits in their retirement years. They also get no healthcare, paid vacation or other benefits.

And they certainly end up with lower pay than those in the rest of the workforce. Government regulations about minimum wages hold no sway at all in the black economy. Ironically this is the most free market sector of all…which means pay is constantly being forced lower.


What the growth of the black economy really means

Whilst very little hard data is available about the underground economy, I am convinced that the majority of people within it are there not because they want to be, but because they have no real alternative.

And its explosive growth means that if you want to work, more and more of the work that is available is within the black economy. It’s Hobson’s choice…no work or work that is officially illegal. It’s not a symptom of an increasingly dishonest population, it’s a symptom of economic policy failure.

Both the IRS in the US and the Inland Revenue in the UK have announced numerous new initiatives to clamp down on the black economy. More investigations; harsher punishments. And yet the non-payment of tax by businesses like Amazon and Google continue more or less unchallenged.

It’s unjust and it targets those who are least able to defend themselves.

Government presents these moves as being a drive for a more equitable society. For everyone to pay their fair share. This is disingenuous. If we had economic success, we’d still have tax evasion, but only by those who had the freedom of choice. Unlike global corporations, most citizens who avoid tax today have few choices left.

I don’t condone tax evasion by anyone. I just think that government needs to remember that it exists to serve its citizens not the other way round. Government is happy to punish people for not declaring income in just the same way as if they robbed a bank. And yet it is failed government economic management that has created the situation that forces most people into these desperate choices.

If forced to choose between your family having nothing to eat or paying your tax bill, what would you do?

7 Tips on how to use LinkedIn to find a job

By Sarah Halzack

Want to use LinkedIn to find a job or boost your career, but not sure where to start?

Brendan Browne, LinkedIn’s director of global acquisition, and Nicole Williams, a career expert for LinkedIn, share some ways to get the most out of the professional networking site:

Don’t settle for a bare-bones profile. “A good profile is a complete profile,” Browne said.

In other words, a simple list of your past employers and job titles likely won’t entice a recruiter. A comprehensive profile includes your educational background and detailed descriptions of all of your work experiences and skills. Depending on your field, you might also provide examples of your work in the form of video, slideshows or other multimedia files.

“Unlike a résumé where you want to be really succinct, you can actually broaden your profile,” Williams said.

Include a profile photo. LinkedIn has found that profiles that contain a photo are seven times more likely to be viewed.

“It’s kind of like shopping for a house online,” Williams said, meaning that you might ignore a real estate listing on the Web if it didn’t include photos of the property.

Share regularly and wisely. Much like Facebook, LinkedIn allows users to post updates. These can be simple messages, such as “I’m off to a global health conference in New York” or “Congratulations to my team for beating its monthly sales goal.” Updates can also include links to articles and other content from around the Web.

Williams said that if you share something just once a week, LinkedIn has found you are 10 times more likely to have your profile viewed by a hiring manager.

“The biggest thing I look for when people share articles is not necessarily someone who’s sort of bragging about their company or saying ‘come work at my company,’ ” Browne said. “But just really sharing and commenting in an insightful way about really interesting topics. Those things stand out in a massive way.”

Be professional, but don’t be staid. In a LinkedIn profile, “I really look for someone’s personality to come screaming through,” Browne said.

Updates, he said, can be a powerful way to show who you are.

Your profile can also be used to highlight unique hobbies or activities that illuminate what kind of worker you are.

Williams offered an example of a friend who works in the publishing industry and was weighing two equally qualified candidates for a job. On LinkedIn, she learned that one of the candidates did volunteer work with an animal rescue nonprofit. The hirer was an animal lover, so that candidate ultimately got the job.

Personalize your invitation to connect. When you invite someone to connect on LinkedIn, your request is accompanied by a brief note. You have the option of selecting a boilerplate message that reads, “I’d like to add you to my professional network.” But Browne advises taking the time to craft something more tailored.

“Find some degree of connection, and a warm connection,” Browne said.

For example, you could point out that you share an alma mater, or you could mention a mutual friend or colleague.

Mine mutual connections. Browne advises paying attention to shared acquaintances as a way to better understand the background of someone you want to meet.

For example, if you are looking for more information on a potential employee or employer, you can check out your mutual connections.

“A couple different things happen from that,” Browne said. “One, you probably will give me some directional [information], which is really helpful when it comes to recruiting talent. And second, you might actually be able to help me...in terms of getting in touch with him.”

Focus on fit, not volume. Browne said it’s a turnoff if job seekers appear to be using LinkedIn indiscriminately, meaning they are deluging recruiters with too many messages or are going after jobs for which they are not qualified.

“I would encourage people to not do that, to be a bit more patient and thoughtful,” Browne said.

This post originally appeared here:

http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-08-04/business/41067476_1_linkedin-linked-in-profile

Is having a job really the best choice for you today?

By Neil Patrick

Last week I was sent the transcript of a soon to be published book about self- employment as a consultant and how to go about it successfully.

The author asked me if I’d be willing to review the book and provide my reaction to it in the form of an endorsement to be included in the final version when it goes to print.

I was surprised and flattered. Well I’m now reading the book and it’s great and after it’s published in a couple of weeks, I’ll be writing more about it here. But because the topic of the book was essentially self-employment for mature professionals, it got me thinking I really should revisit this topic on this blog.

I talk here a lot about jobs, and how to get them in these hyper-difficult economic conditions.

But there’s another option too of course - creating your own job.

Our generation has been taught to be a bit scared by this I think. We all know of someone who lost their entire life savings when their business went bust or failed to even get off the ground. And yes, the statistics for the failure of start-up businesses are still frightening.

But being self-employed doesn't automatically mean you must risk your savings and your financial future. Quite the opposite in fact.

Not if you choose to take the skills you have acquired over all those years of working and decide to sell them in small pieces to people that need them.

In fact if we accept that getting a job as an employee is now harder than ever, especially once you get past about 45, isn’t it more sensible to choose a life path where our age and experience is actually a benefit rather than a burden?

And here’s the truth: people want and need freelancers more than ever today.

The recession has made businesses really cautious about taking on extra employees. It’s obvious the reason this is happening - why take the commitment of having an extra head on the payroll, month in month out, at a time when costs need to be ruthlessly squashed, when you could get the job done by a contractor with absolutely no long-term obligations attached?

And people will pay top dollar for this too.

You see, the real question clients often face isn't can we afford to pay $500 or $1000 or $2000 a day for a contractor? The fact is that many, many businesses have now slashed their permanent full-time staff to the absolute bone. The moment anything happens (which of course it always does) which means they need some extra resource, they are stuck. Big time. They may also have hiring freezes which means they cannot hire any extra people.

So their problem cannot be solved by hiring new people. But it can be solved by finding skilled and reliable people outside the business to handle it for them. And suddenly if you are on their radar, and you have the skills and experience called for, you are in a strong position to negotiate a good rate. So let’s say they hire you for 6 weeks, 2 days a week, at $1,000 a day. Total cost $12,000 dollars. And their problem is gone.

And you are $12,000 better off in exchange for 12 days of your time. (Okay, I know that’s a gross simplification, but you’ll get the point I’m sure)

And your client’s headcount is still the same. You’re happy. They’re happy.

There’s another thing I like about this choice also. It’s kind of a philosophical point but it goes like this. Remember all those years of toil and torture to get things done for the people you worked for in the past? Sure you do. You’d just rather not think about them usually right?

But here’s the thing – all that sweat and tears taught us a lot. And that’s the point. We can view that as an investment in us. And whilst we may not have exactly enjoyed the process, it makes us what we are today. Which is mature, experienced people who have learned a great deal in our lives.

So what I like is the idea that indirectly, all that sweat and toil is now being rewarded back to us over and over again.

Somehow it feels like justice has been done!

Oh and if you still want to invest all your time in just hunting for a job, remember these realities:

For every great job out there, there are dozens of really soul-sucking, punishing and unrewarding jobs. Just remind yourself about:

1. The feelings of powerlessness experienced daily by millions of employees

2. The lack of job security that now exists for just about every employee

3. The frustrations of having to do what you are told, rather than what you are really best at

4. The requirement of every employer that you work to a rigid schedule like a machine

5. The crazy office politics that demotivate everyone

6. The lack of fulfillment you feel by doing things just because someone tells you you must

7. The increasingly rarity of pay rises when our costs of living continue to soar

8. The daily torture by bad bosses

9. The lack of appreciation shown for all your efforts

10. The fear of making a mistake which will lead to disciplinary action or possibly even being fired.

Let the young people who are less experienced than us have these jobs I say. They need work experience and they need to learn. We've already paid our dues.

Aren’t you infinitely smarter and more experienced and knowledgeable today than when you were 25 or 30? Of course you are. So why would you choose to even think about competing with those people?

Play to your strengths.

Small Job Search Tips That Make You Stand Out Big Time

By Amanda Augustine

Catch your interviewer's eye with these surprisingly simple tips and reel in your next job.

In today's competitive job search, you could be battling 100 other qualified candidates for a position. (At least! -Ed) The only way to get the job is to catch the eye of the interviewers. Here are seven ways you can distinguish yourself from the pack during your job search.

Like it or not - you are in competition

Keep your story consistent
Make sure your online story - in the form of professional profiles, memberships, and so forth - aligns with your job goals and resume. It's important for a recruiter or hiring manager to find the same person online they met face-to-face or on paper.

Develop your tagline
Think about what makes you unique, taking into account your career goals, interests and passions, and what strengths you bring to the table. Use this information to develop the tagline to your elevator pitch. It should be short, memorable and adaptable to any audience.

Recommend a friend
If a recruiter reaches out with a position that isn't a great fit, don't ignore the message. Instead, look through your network to see if you know someone who would be a better fit for the position. This puts you in the recruiter's good graces and gives you a chance to clarify your professional brand and job goals.

Voice your opinion
Join and actively participate in online discussions with networking groups related to your target field of work. Engage in the conversation and share your knowledge. Recruiters are notorious for trolling these groups to scout potential candidates - by starting and contributing to conversations related to your industry, you're setting yourself apart from the other members.

FedEx it
Reserve this tactic for the job for which you're a perfect fit and incredibly interested in. In addition to submitting your application through the company's online application system, FedEx a copy of your resume and cover letter to the hiring manager. FedEx packages are typically opened by the actual recipient, thus bypassing the gatekeeper and ensuring your application makes it to a key decision maker.

Come prepared
It's appalling how many professionals show up to an interview unprepared. Before you enter the room, make sure you've done your research. Set up Google Alerts on the company to stay abreast of any news related to your target employer. Research the company so you have a good sense of their business and standing in the marketplace. Practice responding to the interview questions that make you uneasy (i.e. "Tell me about yourself") and prepare questions for each interviewer that demonstrate you've done your homework and are genuinely interested in the role.

Say thank you
A study by TheLadders found that only 67 percent of those polled send a thank-you note after every interview. By sending a thank-you message to each interviewer within 24 hours of the interview, you differentiate yourself from other candidates and can help advance your candidacy to the next round.



Amanda Augustine is the Job Search Expert for TheLadders. She provides job search and career guidance for professionals looking to make their next career move. Have a question for Amanda? Follow her at @JobSearchAmanda on Twitter and "Like" her on Facebook for up-to-the-minute job-search advice.

This post originally appeared here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amanda-augustine/small-jobsearch-steps-tha_b_4296058.html?utm_hp_ref=college

What to say to employers to get hired into the hidden jobs market

By Neil Patrick

If you are looking for a job, how many times have you called a company to ask if they have any job openings and the response has been something like, ‘Not right now, but please send us your resume and we’ll keep it on file and let you know if something comes up’?

I don’t think I can say it’s never happened, but I have never heard of anyone being called back after their resume has been sent in to a firm and put ‘on file’.

It might as well be filed in the bin. Sometimes, I am sure it is.

To avoid this happening to you, you need totally different tactics.

As I talked about in this post here on the hidden job market, the secret is not to ask people if they have any job vacancies. It’s to become a detective and use research to discover firms that have a problem that you can help them solve.

As with so many aspects of successful job searching, the key to your success is in working smarter, not harder. And thinking of yourself not as a job seeker, but a solution to other people’s problems. Find the problems and you’re half way there.

If you want to know how you can do this, how to find the right organisations to approach and exactly what to say to them, this great clip from sales expert Jill Konrath, spells it all out for you.

One man’s quest to make the best career consulting open to all

By Neil Patrick

Since I started this blog, I have just kept on meeting more and more really amazing people in the area of careers and jobs. HR heroes, star recruiters, resume writers, Linkedin experts, social media stars, bloggers, coaches…the list goes on and on. But then every so often, I meet someone extraordinary who doesn't neatly fit into just one of these categories.

I have made it part of my mission to find and connect with the most important and influential people in these fields. It’s a simple and obvious objective really. By finding all these people, I can provide readers of this blog with the best contacts possible. Despite being in different specialisms, these people all share one thing…a passion for helping people with their careers.

If you’re a bit of a cynic, that’s OK - I’m the same, but I’ll tell you right now that this post is a free plug! But I am only doing it because I think this is something that deserves spreading the word about and it’s a fascinating story…

Meet Fernando Ratkoczy

I first encountered Fernando Ratkoczy a few months ago on Twitter. He had a much bigger following than I do - over 35,000 - so I figured, he was someone I’d like to have in my Linkedin network.

Fernando Ratkoczy

When I checked him out on Linkedin I was astonished to find he had no less than 102 recommendations from people he’d helped. The average is just 2 from what I can discover.

And the glowing endorsements about him convinced me that he was much more than just a normal career coach. I knew I had to talk to this guy.

We exchanged a couple of emails and agreed we’d speak on the phone as he was temporarily in Europe instead of his normal home in California.

He’s helped over 10,000 people already

We managed to schedule a phone chat which ended up being four hours long!

As we started talking about his career, I quickly became fascinated. He had spent 20 years of his life as a career coach working with professionals who were facing redundancy. And it turned out that he’d helped over 10,000 people land great new jobs. That’s an astonishing number.

Being the slightly sceptical person I am, I did the maths. That’s 500 people a year, or about a dozen a week. Fernando explained to me that that was his normal caseload when he was a corporate career coach. He provided job finding consultancy and coaching to people who were typically being laid off by large organisations. His job was to ensure his clients found and landed new jobs as fast as possible.

I wanted to know firstly, why he thought successful professionals needed any help at all with their job search? He was quite unequivocal:

‘Today, being good at your job is no longer enough to get you hired for your next job. Getting hired is a specialized skill all on its own. And most people know far less about it than they think they do. Only a fool would attempt to represent themselves in court. You hire a professional. Finding and getting the right job is no different.’

Fernando went on to tell me that to minimise the negative PR, his clients’ former employers would pay up to $10,000 per person to ensure they were helped as quickly as possible after redundancy into a new job. Since many people were not adequately equipped to easily do this themselves, their ex-employers were willing to pay for this assistance as part of their redundancy package.

Which is how he became an expert at finding people great jobs. Or rather helping them to do it for themselves. And his success at helping people achieve this was why so many people had shown their appreciation of his help and guidance on Linkedin.

Why is it so expensive?

I asked him next why this coaching was so expensive?

‘The one to one coaching process is very time consuming. It takes many hours of meetings and discussions. And the firms that provide it typically carry big overheads. Most people don’t know what the steps to success are. They wrongly assume that you search for job vacancies that fit your experience, send off your application and resume, and hope you get an interview. It just doesn’t work like that anymore and if you use that method, you’ll most likely be in for a very long period of unemployment’.

Over many years, Fernando developed his coaching into a slick machine. He wasn’t in the business of just sitting there and giving tips. That was far too uncertain. What was needed was a proven process, which if followed would ensure success for everyone. At every level from the most junior to VPs and Executives. Over 20 years, his process just got better and better, until it was about as robust as it could possibly be.

How Hollywood comes into the story

As the chat progressed, he told me an amazing story about his own career. Before spending 20 years as a career coach, as a young man, Fernando had sought to develop his career in Hollywood. He had spent years in the film industry learning the art of film production. He’d actually acted in films and directed several too, before deciding to become a career consultant with one of the biggest global career consulting firms.

But that wasn’t the most interesting part of his story. He decided a few years ago to leave the world of corporate career consulting and combine his two areas of expertise; helping people find and land great jobs and film production.

He set out with a simple but hugely ambitious goal. He would produce the most comprehensive set of coaching films ever made, dedicated to revealing to people all the best practices and secrets of job search success he’d learned in 20 years of career consulting.

But these wouldn’t be just interviews and tips. Instead he set out to create a comprehensive programme which would film every step of the process he had refined over 20 years from start to finish, using the full production resource that would be applied to a movie production. Every scene would be properly scripted. Every shot would be professionally directed, lit and acted. The material would be edited, organised and packaged so that anyone could easily follow the step by step process.

This cost him over $1m dollars!

I’m still amazed at the ambitiousness of this project. Even after all the editing and organising, the full film programme runs for 7 hours! And I wasn’t in the least surprised when Fernando told me that it had cost him over $1m and 3 years to complete.

I wanted to know how the final result had been received. ‘The programme was finally finished last year and I’ve been delighted at the reception it’s been given by large organisations and the career coaching community. It’s great to get the endorsement of other recruitment and HR professionals. They tell me that the programme provides a really attractive alternative to the slow and expensive process of face to face coaching. And I’m relieved that they are buying it too… I need to recover my investment!’

I wanted to see the outcome of all this work and investment for myself and so Fernando gave me a free pass to view all the materials. I spent several hours going through the resources he has set up at the Successful Job Search Center - SJSC.

The materials there are impressive in their quantity and quality. Not just the film material, which is superbly well structured and presented; there are 400 resume templates for every role imaginable. Over 20 cover letter templates. A user forum. Progress tests. And a database of every employer in every state in the USA. It’s a very complete resource package.

Fernando has also provided me with this short series of excerpts so you can view some extracts for yourself.




I think he has succeeded in his goal beyond any expectation. The resources and process he has created distill all the best practices into a simple process that anyone can follow to achieve success.

I’d like to thank Fernando for the time he’s given me to talk about his life and work and I wish him every success with the Successful Job Search Center.

If you’d like to know more about the SJSC programme, just follow this link:

http://www.findrightjobfast.com/special-offer/

If you’d like to connect with Fernando or view his Linkedin profile, here’s the link:

www.linkedin.com/in/fernandoratkoczy/

Tips for boomers to find ‘flexible’ jobs

By Andrea Coombes

A growing percentage of Americans say their retirement will entail some paid work, either because they’re worried about their lack of savings or because they want to stay active. But that doesn’t mean retirees are yearning for a 50- or 60-hour workweek.

Sixty-nine percent of workers said they plan to work for pay after they retire, according to the 2013 Retirement Confidence Survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

And more workers said they plan to delay retirement: 36% of workers said they’ll wait until they’re 66 or older to retire (fully 26% said they’d wait until age 70 or older), up from 11% who said that in 1991. Read the study here.

Another 7% of workers said they don’t plan to retire at all.

If you’re among those who plan to continue working but you don’t want to keep going full-tilt, what’s the best way to find a good part-time or work-at-home gig?

The good news is that, anecdotally at least, there are employers out there looking to fill part-time jobs with experienced workers, and a number of websites aim to help people like you find those jobs.

And “part time” doesn’t have to mean a job at a fast-food restaurant or in retail.

“Some of the jobs employers are trying to fill are not what anyone would think of as an average telecommuting job,” said Sara Sutton Fell, founder and chief executive of FlexJobs, based in Boulder, Colo.

“These are high-level roles. They are very well suited to an older demographic who values flexibility and has the skills to bring to the table,” she said.

Some of the current openings on her site include “infrastructure management senior analyst,” firewall engineer, human-resources generalist and senior tax associate, Fell said. Some of the companies posting positions to the site include PwC (formerly PricewaterhouseCoopers), ADP and Xerox.

Tips for finding a job

Visit the job sites. You can search for part-time jobs onRetirementJobs.com, RetiredBrains.com, and Indeed.com, among others.

Meanwhile, FlexJobs only posts jobs that are part-time or flexible as well as professional (meaning they have opportunity for growth). The company vets each posting to make sure it’s legitimate (FlexJobs.com charges job seekers from $14.95 a month to $49.95 a year to see the listings).

Drop by. “If it’s an employer you know you want to work for, particularly if it’s a retail-based job, go in, meet with the manager,” said Kerry Hannon, a Washington-based career expert and author of “Great Jobs for Everyone 50+.” “Dress appropriately, drop off your resume and just say you’re available. Nothing beats a face-to-face meeting with somebody.”

Don’t rule out full-time job postings. For the right candidate, employers may consider alternative work arrangements. “Often, job-sharing arrangements and so forth come up,” said Tim Driver, chief executive of RetirementJobs.com and MatureCaregivers.com, in Boston. “It’s always worth exploring listings that are written as full time.”

Tap your network. Ask people you know whether they know of any part-time or telecommuting opportunities at their workplace—and whether they can put in a good word for you, Hannon said. “Employers love to hire people who they know or the people that work for them know,” she said.

Go beyond the big job websites. Interested in a nonprofit job, for example? “The Chronicle of Philanthropy has a great jobs board—that’s a good place to look for any kind of nonprofit job,” Hannon said, adding that “the nonprofits love part-time workers,” in part because those organizations often face budgetary constraints.

Ask your network about job boards, staffing companies and temp agencies that focus on your city or state. For example, a staffing agency called 10 til 2 focuses on part-time jobs in Colorado.

Hannon pointed to Flex Professionals, which lists jobs with flexible schedules in the Washington, D.C., area, and Special Counsel, which looks to place people in the legal profession.

Check with trade groups and your alumni association to see whether they know of or list flexible jobs. Also, college career centers often offer advice on career transitions, Hannon said. “A lot of them have great career coaches on staff who can help you with interviews and resumes.”

Visit universities’ online job boards. “Most of the big universities have job boards that you can check for part-time or full-time work,” Hannon said.

Avoid the scams

It’s no secret that many workers dream of working at home, and the idea is gaining acceptance among some employers, depending on the job type.

Still, “there’s been slower acceptance of that than even part-time work,” said Jill Ater, founder and chief operating officer of 10 til 2, the Denver-based staffing agency.

“Employers still want to see people, but sometimes you can start off in the office and transition once they learn to trust you,” Ater said. Job seekers might ask in the interview whether working at home is an option at some point. “See how the employer feels about it,” she said.

Unfortunately, the work-at-home dream is a target for scammers looking to separate you from your money, often by collecting fees upfront for equipment or information they say is necessary for their work-at-home “opportunity.”

As part of its premium service ($4.95 a month; you can cancel at any time), RetirementJobs.com offers a “Work at Home Guide” that lists organizations it considers legitimate, plus tips to stay safe.

Here are some other ways to steer clear of scams:

• Avoid ads that read like marketing copy. When looking for work, focus on ads that list a job title. “You want it to be a professional job posting and not marketing copy,” Fell said. “If it looks like they’re trying to get anybody to apply, that’s probably not a professional job posting.”

• Be wary of requests for money. Fell said the scam often goes like this: “We’re going to give you your own computer. We’ll mail that to you, but we do need to install some proprietary software on there, so you need to pay $400 for that.”

• Search for the company’s name on Google to make sure the website address given to you is legitimate. Sometimes scammers create fake websites that mimic real sites, to lure you to provide personal information or to send money. “They’ll mimic the names of the CEO, the director of HR, so the website really looks legit,” Fell said. “Unfortunately, they’re really good at it sometimes.”

• Search the company’s name with the word “scam” or “complaint” to see what others are saying.

• Be wary about sending personal information if the email address doesn't include the company name. “Make sure the job ad has the company domain name in it, rather than a general @hotmail or @gmail,” Fell said.

More resources

Here are some additional resources for finding part-time or flexible jobs:

Common Good Careers recruits for the nonprofit sector. Read more: Boomers: Get job recruiters on your side.

Idealist and Bridgespan also list jobs at nonprofit organizations.

Check out AARP’s page on working after retirement.

Encore.org offers a guide to finding work after 50.

Read more: Taxes, Social Security and your part-time job.

Andrea Coombes is a personal-finance writer and editor in San Francisco. She's on Twitter @andreacoombes.

This post originally appeared here:

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/tips-for-boomers-to-find-flexible-jobs-2013-08-29

Insider’s Secrets to Uncovering Contacts and Jobs (VIDEO)

By Neil Patrick
One of the facts I return to again and again is that the job hunting process no longer works in the way it used to. If you don’t know this already, I can tell you that right now around 80% of jobs are never advertised. And the way to get into this sector of the market is through effective networking.

But it’s about working smarter, not harder. Part of this involves powering up your network and Linkedin profile so this works better for you. And I’ve posted a lot of tips here about this (if you want to find all of these, just type ‘Linkedin’ into the search box top right).

But you shouldn’t just rely on this alone. Networking into you next job isn’t about going to countless events and giving out your business card to as many people as you can. It’s about targeting the RIGHT people and the right organisations.

Put another way, it’s Ready, Aim, Fire, not Fire, Fire and Fire again!

Too many people think that effective networking is about self promotion and meeting as many people as you can. Wrong. It’s actually much more like detective work. So use your forensic and research skills to uncover WHO you should be talking to and find the right way to get to them. And that’s often by indirect routes.

Research them on Linkedin. Learn everything you can about their business and it’s challenges. Find out which Linkedin Groups they are in. See who may be in their network that may be in yours. See if they are on Twitter.

Do not find them and then lamely tell them that you are looking for a job. Connect with them and engage on topics that they are interested in. Be inventive. If they post about a topic on Linkedin, use it as an opportunity to bring yourself to their attention, by sharing your knowledge. And if you don’t have any, go and find some. It doesn’t matter how you got the information. It’s not about you, it’s about them and bringing yourself to their attention in a way which doesn’t ask anything of them. This is called ‘paying it forward’.

I have hired dozens of people in this way. Not because they applied for a job vacancy, but because they did their homework and reached out effectively to me. When I discovered people in this way, the chances are that I would pass the information to the relevant line manager, asking them to check the person out. And you could be sure that at the very least that we’d discuss that resume and quite probably invite the person for an interview. Not because we had a vacancy, but because the person had shown me they had something we needed.

This film from NYU will give you a lot more ideas to about how you can get creative in penetrating this market. No more lukewarm coffees and awkward chats with total strangers in hotel lobbies will be needed either!

How to network into the hidden jobs market (VIDEO)

By Neil Patrick

If you follow this blog, you’ll know that I am a strong advocate of targeting your effort into building strong personal networks. In today’s job’s market, this is without question, the most powerful strategy for securing your next role.

But we have to do this in the real world as well as online. It’s easy to be fooled into thinking that we are networking effectively whilst sitting in front of a computer. For sure, the internet provides a lot more options than were previously available, but it is a supplement, not a replacement for real world networking.

The most successful networkers know how to combine both, and if you know the tricks, you really can become so well connected that jobs and opportunities actually find you.

Successful networking doesn’t come easily to many of us however. How can you become more successful at doing this in the real world? And how does this connect with what you do online?

As with so many things, it is actually easier if you know a few simple tricks. And better still, these don’t require you to change who you are, just what you do.

So I was delighted to find this conference video segment from NYU which provides about a dozen great tips to improve your networking whether you are seeking your next role or just looking to invest in your personal career future.

It’s just 9 minutes long, so by my calculations, that’s one idea every 45 seconds!

Don't Start a Job Hunt Until You Read This

By Gail McMeekin

I have been hearing unusual stories from clients who are job-hunting these days. So I decided to consult a few recruiters for a new perspective and their advice for gaining employment in today's world.

I first spoke with Jill Ikens, President of Atrium Staffing in Boston, which is a woman-owned staffing firm headquartered in New York City with multiple offices in New Jersey, San Francisco and Pittsburgh. She is seeing an uptick in new hires in Boston, especially in the fields of biotech, start-ups and new opportunities in human resources, especially on the benefits side, due to the constant and upcoming changes in health care laws. There is also a rising demand for human resource managers and generalists.

Jill finds that students who have worked their way through school and have solid work experience have a much better chance of finding work and are more marketable in employers' eyes. She worries that candidates often rush through their resumes without making it clear what they have to offer or taking the time to tell their personal work story. As a former teacher, Jill is often shocked by the spelling and grammar on the resumes she gets, which can ruin a candidate's chances for success. 

She advises candidates that it is imperative to do significant research on a company before an interview. Companies are looking to hire people who demonstrate uniqueness and creativity and can market themselves to match the company culture. She does see a trend towards video resumes in the future too. Jill also talked about the importance of good manners, such as hand writing notes to thank the interviewers, which job hunters may overlook.

Jill urges candidates to clean up their social media accounts of anything controversial and to be careful of what they are posting. She also recommends that job hunters complete their entire Linked In profile, including gathering excellent recommendations, as companies will be reviewing profiles very carefully. Use Twitter to follow companies where you are interested in working. Social media will give you great interview material and increased connections.

My second expert is Jenna Bayard, an Executive Search and Assessment Consultant at Russell Reynolds Associates in New York City. She has worked in the field since college. She finds that she and her colleagues are spending more time than ever coaching their candidates to communicate clearly and effectively in interviews. She says that too many candidates are talking in circles, not listening or following directions, and rambling when they are asked how they can add value to the hiring company. I mentioned that it sounded like candidates need "media training" where they can learn to speak in bullet points and synthesize information to convey quickly with impact. She agreed.

Like Jill, she says that LinkedIn In has radically changed the field of job-hunting for candidates and companies alike. She highly recommends that executives invest in the Premiere Edition of LinkedIn. She encourages people not to apply blindly for a job, but to use the LinkedIn tools to get to the hiring team. It is good to have 500+connections. She says that if you are looking for work and currently working at another job, do not fill out the Job Seeker Application, as your current employer may see it. Jenna declared that audio phone screening is dead and that companies are now using Skype or Face Time for interviews. If you have anything controversial on your digital footprint, i.e. Google, Facebook, etc. that you cannot remove; you need to address it openly with the hiring company.

Jenna says that while hiring has improved, many companies are quite gun-shy about making a poor hire. Therefore, the interview process is more complex and takes much longer. Companies are road-testing executives and digging deeply into their strategic skills, their problem-solving talents, and whether or not they match the company culture by requiring multiple interviews, more time connecting to people at the company, and more evidence that this candidate can come in as a change agent. Companies are looking to hire people who are not just going to do their job description, but demonstrate new ideas and the capacity for innovation. Job-hunting, especially on the executive level, requires lots of patience for candidates since companies keep evaluating them from all angles. Jenna says that some candidates actually withdraw from the hiring process in exasperation or because they are out of vacation time from having so many interviews with one company.

Lastly, Jean Kripton Dunham has owned Jean Kripton, Inc. in Chicago for over 25 years now. She rode out the recession and now sees lots of requests for new talent. She sees three major trends. Candidates, who lose their jobs due to a lay-off or other reason, need to completely re-evaluate themselves before they go back on the job market. They need to be certain that they have the skills required for the new workplace, especially in technology. Plus they need to update their network and understand how their field has changed and be strategic about how to sell themselves into the positions they seek.

Secondly, Jean says that companies need help getting crystal clear on exactly what kinds of competencies are needed for a posted job. Part of her job is to try to get the hiring company to zero in on real specifics. She also says that many hiring companies are still rigid about candidates in transition. For example if someone has changed jobs frequently, but can demonstrate an upward career path, that should not be held against him or her. Sometimes when people are out of work, they need to work part-time anywhere they can just to pay the bills. So candidates need a solid explanation for each career move.

Thirdly, I asked Jean about the issue of age, as people over 50 are afraid they are no longer marketable. Jean advises candidates not to make their age an issue in their communications with companies. Candidates need to convince companies that they want to make a long-term commitment and that this is not just a stepping stone job. If you are over-qualified for the job that you are seeking, you need to persuade them as to why it is a good fit for you and which specific company challenges you are excited about. Jean says, and I agree, that companies have to become more flexible in reviewing each candidate as an individual. Even if they have had a number of jobs, this candidate may be a better choice than a person who has done exactly that same job before and hasn't experienced a variety of business models and work cultures.

So, there are lots of changes in the field of work to consider before you launch a job-hunting effort. Many people are working at a workaholic pace, are out of touch with their network and their industry trends, and have not been to a conference in years. We now manage our own careers. Make sure that you are actively building your network of colleagues, in-person as well as in organizations in your industry, even if you have a job today. You may not have a job next week. Marketing yourself is no longer an optional skill-set in the 21st century. You need a portfolio of skills and evidence that you can exceed the demands of a job, visibility in your field thorough speaking, blogging or being active in associations, and a daily marketing plan for finding the best company match for you. Good luck!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gail-mcmeekin/dont-start-a-job-hunt-unt_b_3260697.html

Linkedin Story : How I Became a Jobs Magnet

This story from Dave Mendoza’s great blog, http://sixdegreesfromdave.com/ really highlights so many key points that I just had to share it with you. My thanks go to Dave and Erik for these really valuable insights into today’s jobs market and how we can use Linkedin to turn our personal prospects around.

By Erik Pettit
Director of Facilities Management at The Sterling Group

It was 10pm on crisp March night. I checked my bank account, looked through email, caught up with friends on Instagram and Facebook and confirmed a connection with an executive on LinkedIn, all from my phone! I knew it all, right? I’ve used social media for years, met my wife via MySpace in the height of its’ day but I had much to learn about using social media to find my dream job; LinkedIn is where my story begins!

Outside of my second story brick home, master bedroom window, I can see and old fashioned, iron street lamp cutting a dim path of light through the soft falling snow. I reminisce back one year earlier when I had a slim chance at owning a home, a subpar job with a less than average boss and mediocre income.

I’m confident I did my job well but found my bosses to lack leadership foresight and out of touch with other departments within the organization. I grew more and more dissatisfied with where I would end up in the role I was playing. Did caring and wanting to excel within the department prove to be over achieving and frowned upon by upper management? That may sound funny to some people or even arrogant but to contrary, I understand arrogance well and stay far away from it, as a rule of thumb. I was simply unhappy, stuck in an unproductive role and wanted more for my personal story.

The 2007/2008 economic disaster was just that for me and my new family, a complete disaster. My 11 year old construction business had just collapsed; I was a new husband and an even newer father. I was responsible to be the provider for the first time in my life and I found myself unable! It was clear I needed my first job, ever!

A property management/investment company, Holland Residential, offered me a low/mid-level corp. position and I was thrilled; the learning curve was huge but doable. The position gave me a new lease on life and I found myself very humbled, appreciative of the folks that I worked with.

I was quietly ashamed though because what they didn’t know was that my humble salary wasn’t paying for 1/2 of my bills, not to mention the finer things in life, like lunch. My dreams had died with the economy and I was trying my hardest to feed my family and simply survive.

I may sound a bit dramatic but life was tough. I was on the cusp of losing two homes due to foreclosure, meeting with the IRS in my living room for months on end, dodging the repo man just to keep my vehicle and I can’t count how many sleepless nights my wife and I endured. The position with Holland was amazing and like all amazing things, it had to come to an end. A year later I was laid off and looking for my next survival adventure.

A long 7 months later and an unemployment receiver, I landed a similar position in Colorado. With the homes and IRS dealt with, we packed up and headed a mile high! It didn’t take long for me, in my new position to realize that I was capable of much more in my career. One year in and three bosses later I was ready for a new chapter. Looking at Monster and Craigslist ads, I began to seek a new direction; my main motivation, responsibility and creativity.

Internet job searching took me nowhere and the job response was dismal. Time slowly went by and the job front was stalled; then it happened. It was a chance meeting and a chance conversation that would change my life.

It was my 3 year old son’s birthday party and Dave Mendoza, attended the party with his wife and daughter. While standing in a group of dads, I mentioned that I was on the job hunt. Dave quickly looked over at me and asked me, in what industry and what methods I was utilizing in my search. I rattled off the usual, Monster, CareerBuilder and Craigslist and hit a couple of other job sites. Dave peaked my interest when he told me in other words that I’ve wasted the last 6 months and should of come to him for advice sooner. Dave took it a step further and invited me to his home for a Sunday afternoon “lesson” on job finding! For the next 24 hours I contemplated what I could be missing and I couldn’t think of anything, I knew it all, so I thought.

At Dave’s home the following day, we sat down in his regal office where his Apple computer screen glowed with my very own LinkedIn profile. I knew very little about LinkedIn and in one hour’s time, Dave had me requesting connections with people throughout my industry all the while using Linkedin to create my personal brand. My profile was a close copy of my resume, detailed and to the point.

Dave worked with me to set up my profile with key words and showed me how to search for key terms such as “Vice President” and “recruiter” to reach hiring managers. By the time Dave was finished explaining the ins and outs, I had my first connection and found myself excited to continue marketing myself! My job seeking world had changed.

As I left Dave’s home that day, he asked me to make 100 connections in the first week. “It’s doable” he said. I was eager and blessed to have someone like Dave pushing me deeper into the unfamiliar.

That first week of connections I had four phone interviews! The next week I had four more. The third and fourth week I had a Chicago flight booked, all the while connecting with folks, seeking my dream job and making progress in creating my personal story. I went from a silent job market to an explosive one!

In the back of my mind I couldn’t let go of that position in Indiana. “LinkedIn” I thought! I did a quick search and found several people in the organization to connect with. It wasn’t long before I received an email back requesting a resume and more information.

Thanks to Dave Mendoza, I learned how impactful social media was. It helped me find my wife, and it took a friend to show me it would just as effectively connect me to gainful employment, let alone my ideal dream job. Instead of sending out as many resumes to mass, general email accounts as I could, I was able to find key people and send resumes with precision and the age old saying, “aim small, miss small”, was once again relevant! The position would be giving me a huge promotion including freedom and the chance to explore business creativity I’d been longing for.

Thanks to Linkedin, I was now connecting with hiring managers and recruiters across the board and I was in the driver’s seat accepting or declining second and third interviews. It was me who was evaluating employers, picking and choosing where I went and when!

I had thought I knew it all. A 30 something, low level manager with a passion to do my job well and to be the best! What I didn’t know was that I was lacking the knowledge that would put me over the edge; the knowledge of Linkedin and personal branding. For me, I landed that Indiana job thanks to Dave and Linkedin. My advice, whether you are job hunting or not, begin to put together a Linkedin profile and like me, create your personal story, one connection at a time!

This post originally appeared here:

http://sixdegreesfromdave.com/linkedin-as-dream-job-catalyst-erik-ettits-how-personal-branding-enabled-my-story/2013/02/25/

6 Pro Tips For Job Searching on Online Websites & Job Boards

by Jessica Miller-Merrell

Even in 2013, Job boards remain a leading candidate source for recruiters and even with the popularity of social media. Major job boards like CareerBuilder and Monster and job board aggregators like Simply Hired and Indeed  are some of the most popular ways for companies to develop a candidate pool when looking to fill an open position.

How does an employee candidate stand out from the virtual pack of job hunters when posting a resume on a major job search board?

TIPS FOR JOB HUNTING ON CAREERBUILDER, MONSTER, ETC

• Your Resume Title. First impressions are important. The title of your online resume will determine whether your resume gets a first look on the employment search engine. Include action words in the title that best describe your experience and are different from the norm. An example would be a Certified AMX Audio Visual Professional.

• Include an Objective in Your Online & Resume Profile. An objective describes what career opportunity as well as industry you are interested in learning more about. Recruiters spend roughly 10 seconds or less per resume on the job boards. Keep your employment objective simple, direct and to the point. For example, Seasoned and Certified Human Resource Director interested in opportunity within the non-profit industry. Limit your objective to 1-2 sentences.

• Resume Format. Include bullets, open space, dates, and quantitative numbers on your resume to help the job search engines index your resume in the right category. Avoid spelling errors, unprofessional email addresses, and a format that is not easily skimmed and no more than 2 pages.

• Update Your Profile Weekly. Job boards list resumes by most recently updated and allow recruiters to use search by resumes updated daily, weekly, and monthly. Keep your resume at the top of the pack by updating it weekly. You can also take advantage of CareerBuilder’s advantage option which automatically provides you this service but at a fee.

• Use Searchable Buzzwords & Keyword Terms. Recruiters mine resumes for qualified employment candidates also by keyword search. Include terms relevant to the industry or job you are interested in. Include any specialized certifications and their abbreviations as well as other specific qualifications to increase your exposure.

• Include Your Contact Information. Job recruiters do not have the time or patience to contact a candidate that uses an anonymous resume on a job search board. Increase your exposure odds by including your contact information, including email and phone numbers.

Successful Job Search

Your job search isn’t an easy task.  It takes hard to work to manage, develop, and execute a successful job search campaign. Job board candidate profiles as well as your LinkedIn professional profile need to be updated and managed on a regular basis – make sure you do it at least weekly.  

http://www.blogging4jobs.com/job-search/online-websites-boards-searching/

Top 10 best job search websites

By Brandon Widder

Looking for work? Check out this guide to the best job search websites to help get you back on your feet and earning again. Even if you think you have the internet covered, check this - it includes some lesser known avenues for you to exploit.

Finding a job is work in and of itself, and needless to say, pounding the pavement can often leave you pounding your fist in frustration. And with unemployment hovering around eight percent according to the United States Department of Labor, it’s no surprise that you may be looking for work given our current economic state.  Although the job market may look a little bleak and barren at times, there are jobs out there for the taking — you just need to know where to look.

Numerous social networking and job search websites are available at your disposal online, whether you’re a part-time student looking to supplement your income or a former CEO on the hunt for the next big startup. The competition may be nonexistent or even over-the-top at times, but just knowing people are hiring offers some piece of mind.

It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there. Here is our guide to some of the best job search websites available at your fingertips. Touch up those resumes and start clicking.

Indeed: Indeed is arguably (and probably) the largest job search engine on the planet. With more than a billion job searches a month and hundreds of thousands of new postings each week, it’s no surprise the company makes that claim. You can create a free, tailored profile, upload a resume, and search job postings aggregated from company pages, associations, and various listings from across the Web. The search results are vast as well as thorough, whether you search by category, location, or even starting salary. The mobile app, email alerts, and search plugins are just a few of the added perks. The website is relatively simple, but sometimes that’s all you need.

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SimplyHired: SimplyHired offers one of the most robust, online job databases out there. The search engine company taps into job listings from across the Web, utilizing information from local newspapers to government websites and everything in between. You can search and browse for specific jobs by title, company, or even skillset and refine the results by your desired location. A free account also allows you to upload your resume for personalized results, manage recent searches, setup email alerts and more. And with more than five million jobs, there’s sure to be something for everyone.

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LinkedIn: LinkedIn is the premiere social networking site for professionals, but it’s also a great free tool for crowdsourcing and landing jobs. You can create a personalized, resume-like profile touting your work experience and various skills, and send invitations to other LinkedIn users to join their network. It works in a similar fashion to the six degrees of separation idea; once you’re connected with another user, you can peruse their network and create valuable contacts to further your connections with other users. The website also serves as an online job board where employers can post available openings and LinkedIn users can apply.

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Craigslist: Craigslist isn’t just used for landing a free sofa or renting out a spare bedroom in your house. Although the website is more stripped down and harder to navigate than some of the other options, it’s still is a fantastic resource and an appropriate avenue for checking out the current job landscape. Just pick your desired location and one of the numerous job categories (i.e. education, government, hospitality) to begin. Be forewarned though, some of the categories can be overly broad, scammers are abundant, and employers are typically bombarded with applicants.

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Monster: Monster.com was once the king of online job boards. Although that may no longer be the case, the website still serves as yet another great option for job hunting with more than a million available listings. You can browse and search listings by wage, time or category among other things, and upload your resume for greater specificity and customization. The website also offers career advice including resume and salary negotiation tips, potential job interview questions and more. It’s not the most extensive of the job search websites, but Monster does a phenomenal job when the search engine is coupled with the career tips and a noteworthy support forum.

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Dice: Dice.com has been the go-to option for technology and engineering jobs since its inception in the early ‘90s. The site offers approximately 80,000 jobs listings on any given day, whether you’re looking for an entry-level position at a small Silicon Valley startup or a coveted position at Google or Microsoft. Users can create a profile, upload a resume and search postings from around the globe. Dice also offers tech news, career advice and a lively support forum that covers topics from computer forensics to tips for understanding seemingly cryptic job descriptions. For more specialty job sites, try your luck with eFinancialCareers for finance jobs or MediaBistro for all things media.

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CareerBuilder: CareerBuilder.com isn’t the best job search website available, but it remains one of the most widely used and popular. It offers all the basic features and allows you to browse and search job postings by skillset, company, and location, among other attributes. A free account gives you options for uploading your resume, managing your job history, and accessing the comprehensive salary calculator. The site even offers a free job competition report so you can get a glimpse of whom you’re up against for any job you apply for. It’s not the most fancy of sites, but it’s simple, straightforward, and to the point.

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TweetMyJobs: TweetMyJobs.com is an entirely different breed of social networking — one that beautifully combines social media with the painstaking task of finding a job. All you have to do is select which types of jobs you’re interested in (or “job channels” as the site refers to them) and connect with your Facebook and Twitter profile. TweetMyJobs will then send you tailored job recommendations directly to your email, mobile or Twitter account depending on your preferences. You also can create a custom profile and upload a resume to speed up the application process. It’s a great method for Twitter addicts to stay up to snuff on the current job market.

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USAJobs: USAJobs.gov is the U.S. government’s official site for federal jobs and their accompanying information (i.e. eligibility, benefits, salary). Although the site is a bit limited, there are still thousands of jobs to comb through, whether you’re on the hunt for that ideal job researching soil for the government or looking to join the team as a Hazmat specialist. USAJobs is current, frequently updated, and often features government positions other job search websites may have missed. You can even apply through the website to streamline the application process.

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Internships: Internships.com is a great option if you’re a student looking to gain some valuable work experience or if you’re just not looking for a full-fledged job. The free-to-use website is one of the largest internship hubs to date and typically features more than 60,000 positions at more than 25,000 companies scattered across the country. You can search by paid or unpaid internships, full- or part-time, and a slew of other options including category, company, and location. Plus, the site offers a mobile app and resume templates if you’re just beginning your hunt.

Read more: http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/best-job-search-websites/#ixzz2Ic1qRkOh

Think differently - six inspiring stories of boomer career reinvention

By CAITLIN KELLY

 

IT’S a baby boomer’s nightmare. One moment you’re 40-ish and moving up, the next you’re 50-plus and suddenly, shockingly, moving out — jobless in a tough economy.

Too young to retire, too old to start over. Or at least that’s the line.

Comfortable jobs with comfortable salaries are scarce, after all. Almost overnight, skills honed over a lifetime seem tired, passé. Twenty- and thirty-somethings will gladly do the work you used to do, and probably for less money. Yes, businesses are hiring again, but not nearly fast enough. Many people are so disheartened that they’ve simply stopped looking for work. 

 For millions of Americans over 50, this isn’t a bad dream — it’s grim reality. The recession and its aftermath have hit older workers especially hard. People 55 to 64 — an age range when many start to dream of kicking back — are having a particularly hard time finding new jobs. For a vast majority of this cohort, being thrown out of work means months of fruitless searching and soul-crushing rejection.

To which many experts say, “What did you expect?”

Everyone, whatever age, needs a Plan B. And maybe a Plan C and a Plan D. Who doesn’t know that loyalty and hard work go only so far these days?

“Shame on you if you’re not thinking every single year, ‘What’s my next step?’” says Pamela Mitchell, a career coach and author. “It’s magical thinking  to do this.”

Ms. Mitchell, who has reinvented her own career a few times, says everyone should think about options, alternative job paths and career goals, just in case. She recommends talking over job possibilities with family members and, if possible, building a financial cushion.

Constant networking is crucial, too. The idea, she says, is to prepare in case a big change comes.

“If you’re thinking about it, you’ll be doing all this piecemeal along the way,” she says.

All of which, of course, is easier said than done. But some people who have gone through the emotional and financial strains of late-career unemployment say that with skill, determination and a bit of luck, the end of a job doesn’t have to be the end of the world. Changing jobs or careers can be a good thing later in life, despite the many risks. Many agree that a willingness to push beyond the comforts of location, lifestyle and line of work is vital.

Though there is no single path, there are success stories that offer hope.

After Bonjet Sandigan left a job in computers, he chose to operate a franchise for ShelfGenie, which makes custom shelves.

Like the story of Bonjet Sandigan, now of Delray Beach, Fla. An information technology specialist, Mr. Sandigan was laid off from Dun & Bradstreet in August 2011. But Mr. Sandigan, now 51, has since carved out a new career with ShelfGenie, a seller of custom home shelving.

It was a big switch. Mr. Sandigan grew up in the Philippines and has a computer science degree from Texas A&M. For years, he worked in I.T. support, helping customers over the phone. But he never managed to move up. When Dun & Bradstreet offered him a severance package, he figured that he could finally afford to take a little time to figure out his next move.

“I did some soul-searching about what’s important to me,” he says. “As you grow, your priorities change.”

His father had been an entrepreneur in the Philippines, and Mr. Sandigan was attracted to the idea of working for himself. With the help of a consultant, he looked into buying a franchise in the I.T. or health care industries. Then he considered a ShelfGenie franchise, which appealed to him partly because it was a turnkey operation.

“The infrastructure is there, the market is there, the policies and procedures are there,” he says. “You just have to follow the procedures.”

Mr. Sandigan had worked in I.T. in various industries, including health care, gambling and financial services, so he was willing to try something new again. Still, the change wasn’t easy.

“I had a whole lot of fears,” he says. “But my background told me to do the numbers, do the math and research the market.”

He eventually spent a low six-figure sum to buy four ShelfGenie sales territories and, after living for decades near Dallas, moved to Delray Beach for his new career and new life. He says his experience in I.T., working with cross-cultural teams in India and China, has been surprisingly useful in his new job, which requires a focus on customer service.

“It was a very diverse culture, so my experience there, trying to understand where people are coming from” proves helpful in his current work, he says. He says his old career taught him to listen closely — a valuable skill in his new work.

“Now that I have to be in front of the client,” he says, “I can spend two hours with them before we even discuss the product, and I can do a demonstration.” 

Mr. Sandigan says he figured that the switch would mean a drop in income, at least initially. The first six to eight months would be hard. But, by his reckoning, his new career is on track financially.

“I’m right where I’m supposed to be,” he says.

The Adventurer

Clare Novak is more than on track with her new career. At 58, she is making twice as much as she did in 2008, when her previous work dried up. 

But Ms. Novak didn’t just change jobs. She changed countries and cultures. After 18 years working in Chester Springs, Pa., doing management training for a range of businesses, she moved to Islamabad, Pakistan, in November, to work as a human resources adviser to nine power companies. Her first contract will last through this year, and possibly through 2015, a prospect she is happy to contemplate.

How did she end up making such a leap? She had formerly done work for someone in Egypt, who e-mailed her a job description and asked if she knew anyone who might fit the bill.

“The only person I know who would go there is me,” Ms. Novak says. When asked if she was interested, she said, “I was thrilled and said yes.”

Today, her life is vastly different. Once an avid hiker, she now spends more time at home, given that she is a foreign woman in a patriarchal society. She lives in what amounts to a rooming house and no longer enjoys the privacy she did in Chester Springs.

“Fortunately, I’m with a very collegial group,” she says.

She is accustomed to adapting, and to using her networking skills. In the economic downturn, “networking and word of mouth were how I developed my business,” Ms. Novak said in an e-mail interview. “Volunteering and networking kept me in business quite nicely, including overseas work in Egypt and Ukraine, and later Canada and Kuwait.”

When American businesses began automating the training that was her specialty, a shrinking profession shrank further. Several of her large clients ended projects.

“My business was down to a few small projects and one week’s work a month in Kuwait,” she says. “The year after, I had only Kuwait, which was not enough to make ends meet.

“In those down years, it was a struggle to remain positive and keep at it,” she says. “A long-time friend and colleague suggested that we form a business forum of like-minded women to help each other. We kept each other on track with our businesses and emotionally.”

To this day, she says, all of those women “are still in business, and we are all experiencing upturns.”

Moving to Pakistan has meant big changes. “There is considerably less autonomy for any foreigner of any age here,” she says. “Due to security, both men and women can only walk in the daylight, and never alone. Our driver can take us to specific sectors, and outside of that we require a protection officer to accompany us. Society is relatively segregated socially, so women cluster together and men likewise. The businesswomen I meet are comfortable in mixed groups, and some are very cosmopolitan.”

All the trade-offs are worth it, she says. Ms. Novak says she loves the adventure of living abroad, and the satisfaction of “being able to make a difference in people’s lives.”

The Inventor

Jeffrey Nash, invented the Juppy, a sling that helps children learn to walk.

After 15 years selling men’s clothing for a national retailer, Jeffrey Nash, 58, was earning $90,000 a year and was often the top salesman in his company. But as the recession deepened, he began referring his customers to struggling co-workers. His sales commissions took a hit.

“I kind of softened up,” he says. “My sales went down because I was sharing them.”

His income fell to $65,000. And as shoppers became more cautious during the recession, he knew that it would soon fall even further.

“I was doomed,” he says. “I knew I had to come up with an idea.”

Mr. Nash, who lives in Las Vegas, had invented a device he called the Juppy, a sling that helps toddlers learn to walk more safely and confidently.

“I had already touched base with a patent attorney and had started the ball rolling,” he says. He took three weeks of vacation to see if he could make a go of his invention, telling only a few people about his plans. Their opinions were “really negative,” he recalls.

Undaunted, he drove to Los Angeles and San Diego, selling the Juppy from his trunk and on a televised sales show, and earning $12,000 in three weeks.

“I never went back to work,” he says.

Investing $35,000 of his savings and an additional $9,000 from his father and a friend, Mr. Nash had the device manufactured in China.

“The transition was simple,” he says. “If I’d stayed in my old job, I was going to lose in the end. I was done. I needed a massive change. I needed income of several hundred thousand dollars. I knew I had to take a risk, a massive risk.”

That included selling his home — for $200,000 less than he had paid for it, because of the downturn — and renting a house instead.

“I used to drive a Lexus,” he says. “I let that go. I don’t need it anymore.” 

Mr. Nash has since sold $500,000 worth of his product, netting $200,000 in two and a half years, an annual average of $80,000.

He is relieved, and proud of having successfully leapt from the familiar into the unknown.

“It’s unbelievable to me that at my age I recognized a need and filled it,” he says. “We’re having a hard time filling orders right now, we have so much demand.”

The Renovator

Duke Marquiss had a lot of experience in real estate, but the recession meant a lack of new developments for him to work with. Today, he buys houses and renovates them for sale.

When the economy heads south, it helps to have been through the situation a few times before, says Duke Marquiss, 67, a real estate investor and broker in Fort Collins, Colo. In 1974, he bought a motel in Gillette, Wyo., during an oil and coal boom. “I made the most money of my life,” he recalls.

But the boom went bust, and in 1987, he moved to Scottsdale, Ariz., where he worked as a mortgage broker. By the time he and his wife moved to Colorado in 1989, Mr. Marquiss understood how to buy, sell, manage and rehabilitate real estate.

Today he earns his living in the real estate market niche known as A.R.V., for “after repair value.” He buys properties, restores them and sells them for a profit. Tipped off by a local friend, he bought 65 town houses in Rock Springs, Wyo., in 2005 for $75,000 apiece, on average, and sold them each for about $100,000.

Mr. Marquiss had saved carefully and lived for three years with no income during the worst years of the recession. Because of a lack of new construction, he says he couldn’t “do the development side I liked and was good at.”

“That left me back selling houses,” he adds, “so I decided I would fix and flip.” 

Growing up on a large sheep farm taught him “ranch-hand logic,” but Mr. Marquiss acknowledges that he has had to learn his new business quickly, including how to use social media to gather advice from generous industry veterans. “LinkedIn helped a lot,” he says.

Mr. Marquiss uses only private investors to do his deals, borrowing between $15,000 and $450,000. “They’re tired of low interest rates or losing their money in the stock market,” he says.

His new line of work is not for everyone, he warns.

“You’ve got to be flexible and think very quickly,” he says. “You can’t bank on any of these deals ever closing.”

Before he found his new field, his wife suggested at one point that he find a full-time job working for someone else. He sent out 200 résumés, but received only one call. Sharply reducing their costs of living helped Mr. Marquiss and his wife, Ginger, weather the transition to their new life. They sold their 3,000-square-foot mountain home and now live in a condominium a third of the size in Fort Collins. He also saves $600 to $700 a month on gasoline by not commuting 45 minutes each way into town.

“It takes a conscious decision to reduce your overhead,” he says. “I see so many people in denial about where they really are financially.”

The Networker

Kenneth Jay Cohen, with his son, Jonathan, has been laid off several times, which has taught him the power of networking.

Since graduating from college, Kenneth Jay Cohen, 52, of Stamford, Conn., has faced six layoffs, the first in his early 30s, and the most recent at 50 with two young children to support. A prolonged period of unemployment wasn’t an option, so he did what he has done diligently for decades: he called upon his multiple networks for guidance and leads.

The first time he lost his job, “it was a shock, because I’d never experienced this before,” he says. “But now I know exactly what to do. I try to feed the network as much as I can while I’m still working so I know it’s there when I need it.”

He has more than 1,000 contacts on LinkedIn and works at finding and keeping business contacts elsewhere, too. “Every three or four months I go to a meeting,” he says. “I know who in my network is out of work, so every time I pick up a lead I pass it along to the group.”

Staying actively connected has also helped.

“I’m associated with a few finance groups within my own industry because people in finance need I.T.,” he says. “I also network with bankers, investment bankers and management types and a few accounting groups.”

In all, Mr. Cohen belongs to 24 groups, of which he is most active in seven to nine at any given time.

When he has lost a job, he has made a point of expanding his networks even further. “I always pick a new group to which I devote my time and my leadership skills,” he says. “It keeps me sane. It keeps me focused.”

It took him five months to find his latest job, a full-time position handling I.T. security for a Manhattan-based financial services company. He found his previous job within 30 days, picking up a year’s guaranteed contract work in Hartford.

“I seem to be able to find work,” he says modestly. “I know project managers who’ve been out of work for two years, and they’re really frustrated.” Some, he says, are too busy nursing their wounds to get out and meet the dozens, perhaps hundreds, of others in their field and affiliated areas who might be able to help them.

Living in an affluent area can complicate the issue when it’s time to tighten your belt.

“I’m back to where I was three and a half years ago financially,” he says. “The consumer I used to be when I was younger has considerably changed. It boils down to what your priorities are, and mine is my family. Sure, I’d like a shiny new Lexus and a million-dollar home. But is that practical for me? I’d rather have my kids.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/13/business/how-5-older-workers-saw-a-chance-to-remake-their-careers.html?pagewanted=4&_r=0